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Obama and the Barack Pack :: URB publisher Raymond Roker sounds off on a generation's chance to define itself

By Raymond Leon Roker   Photography by Aerosyn-Lex (in parody)

08/26/08 :: URB 155

Even with dowdy relic John McCain occupying the other side of the split screen, handsome boy modeling school’s Barack Obama doesn’t automatically stand out as the epitome of power. But as the camera zooms out and you see the multicultural throngs of people who press into his every appearance, Obama’s powerful image increases exponentially. The embodiment of power in this country has been consistent throughout its 232 years: Obama knows he’s not it. He carves a visual that has heretofore only existed in movies or TV, rap fantasies and bigoted nightmares: The Black President. James Brown may have dreamed of this when writing “Funky President,” but could any of us have envisioned the political arbiter and agent of change Barack Obama has become?

Barack Obama’s power comes from the ground up. It emanates from his hundreds of thousands of supporters, first-time voters, college students and renewed optimists of all ages. He’s appeared on just about every major magazine cover and is clearly the favorite to take the White House. He is—even as a 47-year-old—the candidate of seemingly everybody under 30.

If Obama isn’t being sworn in on January 21, 2009, there will be an audible gasp across the country. And it will probably mean one or more things: 1) He fucked up—something like beating his kids or having an affair with John Edwards’ mistress. 2) The ruthless right wore him out with race-baited attacks, subtly coded in symbolism and inference, and distributed ad nauseam on the Internuts. 3) The Democrats, even with Obama at the helm, failed to deliver the goods in the form of comprehensive, detailed and in-touch national priorities, an executable and realistic vision for Iraq, and plans for the economy and social ills such as poverty, education, equal opportunity and jobs. I know, it’s a ridiculously tall order, but here’s why I think he can do it.

OBAMA HAS A POSSE
When I was explaining to a political junkie friend what one of the most glaring differences in the ground operations of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, I simply cited his PR vs. hers. From early in the campaign, I could see a swirl of artistic activity online, in my email and on the streets. From the well-designed, modern logotype Obama chose for his candidacy, to the commissioned Kofie One graffiti mural in his Los Angeles headquarters, it was clear that he understood the creative DNA of his young supporters. Soon guerilla art pioneer Shepard Fairey approached some of Obama’s handlers about doing an Obey-style graphic rendition of the then Democratic frontrunner. Initially skittish, his handlers eventually agreed and the rest is viral street art history. It won’t surprise me if that iconic image—already a campaign visual staple—doesn’t sit in the Smithsonian one day as an artifact of this historic race.

HE’S GOT GAME
He shoots, he scores. Several hundred Army grunts cheer their approval. And while I don’t need a president to hit threes on a military base in the Persian Gulf, it did more to dispel the wrongheaded “elitist” tag in one Kobe-like flick of the wrist than a litany of Kobe-like denials. All the jogging (Clinton) and mountain biking (Bush) presidents in recent memory will soon pale when you consider a candidate with an outside jump shot.

Sure, he might need to bring up his bowling game if he wants to win Pennsylvania or Ohio, but anybody who can talk to bowlers and ballers has more of a chance to bring change to this generation’s most critical problems. As Obama fades from the lazy three-pointer, and the pool cameras get their money shot, the candidate knows that this hits just the right note. What do you call a calm, cool presence, with an analytical mind, a Harvard degree, and a ghetto pass? Ice Cube put it best: “The wrong n*gga to fuck with.”

HE GAVE YOU HOPE (BACK)
You are the stereotypical URB reader: You rarely vote. You’re apathetic. Uninspired. Disenfranchised. Dismissive. In the 18 years I’ve been doing this magazine, I can’t recall an election that caused a stir in your ranks, beyond sideline mockery. You bemoaned any shady politician whose name you could remember and considered the “process” terminally flawed—assuming you were even paying attention. Beyond this sort of armchair giving-a-fuck, you got lost online, participating through inaction, and you weren’t alone. Then came Obama, awakening your dormant spirit, clearly inspiring your peers to (finally) give a damn.

He inspired me too, a realistic and jaded Gen Xer and former Hillary supporter. Obama gave hope its swagger back. He’s moved us to not only show up to the polls on election day—something the pundits always say is a myth, even though this past primary season had consistent record youth turnouts—he even got us to send in our hard-earned cash. This last act came only after somebody from one of the over 500 pro-Obama pages added you on Facebook.

HIS WORLD CITIZENSHIP
Having friends in the EU isn’t necessarily a good thing for somebody running for president. Much of the U.S. is in a nationalistic mood these days and 200,000 cheering Germans can easily be more of a political liability than a win. When on the same trip—egged on by a crotchety McCain—you can speak credibly with the world leaders, and from Jordan to Israel to France, you’re showing America’s true soft power: diplomacy.

They say the Millennials (the accurate term for you guys born after 1980, so forget “Gen Y”) are a generation that would rather get along than be in conflict. Bush’s for-us-or-against-us posturing is luckily fading, while a pragmatic and inclusive global view was on display during the July, 2008, Obama World Tour. It’s not only esteemed foreign advisors and former presidents who want us engaged in international diplomacy (as opposed to fire-breathing rhetoric), but it’s also a humanistic approach. This isn’t surprising, given Obama’s world citizenship via African, Indonesian, Hawaiian and Midwestern influences.

BARACK IS (REAL) HIP-HOP
There’s a video circulating this week, from a speech Obama gave in 2004. In it, he’s heard joking about how his daughter—as cute little girls are prone to—mangles the lyrics to "Drop it like it’s Hot," which she hears as “Drop it like a sock.” The Republicans, sensing an opportunity to hurt Obama among family values voters, spread the clip around like gossiping old ladies at a bridge game. Obama laughed it off. Obama is skillfully avoiding president Bill Clinton’s 1992 Sister Soulja moment. Back then, the once honorary first “black” president, when challenged about Soulja’s militant lyrics, hung the lady rapper out to dry, much to the chagrin of her (and his) supporters like Jesse Jackson. Recently, it was Jackson’s political castration of Obama over his speech on black fatherhood that showed how delicate the dance is for a black politician to speak out honestly about issues. Obama is the first modern politician I know to have the smarts, gravitas and life experience to allow him to stand and fight the ignorance and racial arson that infects our politics. He’s formidable, as evidenced by his speech on race in Philadelphia in March. Our likely first real black president isn’t running from racial politics. By just being himself, he’s daring to reinvent it. That one speech, with its jarring first person narrative and empathetic social critiques is so beyond anything our so-called leaders have uttered, it’s otherworldly.

If this proves anything, it’s that Obama better represents the generation that is coming of age today than anybody elected to high office in our lifetime. When I watch the black kids from my alma mater, Fairfax High, flow into the surrounding Jewish neighborhood, I’m moved. They move in and out of the Asian American and white hip-hop shops and Latino and black-owned skate stores with ease, expressing themselves minus any of the perceived restraints and cultural baggage that I carried on those same streets 20 years ago. The only colors they concern themselves with are on rare kicks. The radicalized fights of the ’60s and ’70s are things their parents dealt with. This is just a fraction of “Generation Obama” that might someday see the most powerful seat in the world as something to aspire to, not for power, but for its greater possibilities.

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